May Day is the working class’s international holiday. It’s a day when workers from across the globe march to commemorate our triumphs, propelled by a vision of a world without exploitation, without capitalist borders, and run by the working class. On this day, we march for the universal demands of all workers: against imperialist war, against racism and sexism, for the unity of immigrant and citizen workers, against wage slavery, against fascist police terror, and for the communist solution to all these attacks facing the international working class.
In this period, there is so much to make our class fearful and raging with anger. As the inter-imperialist rivalry between the bosses in the U.S - NATO, Russia, and China intensifies, workers are bearing the brunt of it from East Africa to Yemen. The dog fight for oil and resources is heightening starvation and poverty, and the bosses have sacrificed millions to be murdered by Covid-19.
Still, there is so much to celebrate in the midst of the bosses’ crises, from coast to coast workers continue to lead militant struggles against the bosses. From women workers in Haiti who shut it down, taking the streets with their working-class brothers and sisters declaring “ we fought for independence and we refuse to be re-enslaved.” In New York, Amazon workers led a militant and sharp struggle to unionize, halting production in the warehouses of the second wealthiest bosses on the planet. In Alabama, miners are staging one of the longest strikes in U.S. history. In India, 50 million workers led a two-day national strike that brought six states in the country to a standstill.
These fightbacks offer us glimmers of hope that our class will one day be the human race. With this unwavering faith in our class, we march on April 30 in New York City and Chicago, hundreds of workers, students, and soldiers will march for communist revolution, workers’ dictatorship, and a world free of the profit system’s horrors. In Los Angeles, many will celebrate at a dinner program around the same theme. In order to win these goals, our Party must grow until our numbers are in the millions. To win a communist world, we must become billions.
Straight out of class struggle
While the bosses try to smear May Day as being “imported from Soviet Russia,” it remains U.S. workers’ contribution to the world’s workers born in the actions of those Chicago strikers. In 1884, the AFL passed a resolution to make eight hours “a legal day’s labor from and after May 1, 1886.” Workers were forced to labor “from sun-up to sundown,” up to 14 hours a day. The Chicago Central Labor Council then called for a general strike on May 1, 1886, to demand the 8-hour day.
May Day was born out of — and honors — the Chicago workers’ historic struggle for the 8-hour day on May 1, 1886, launching a general strike that spread to 350,000 workers across the country. It’s a day when workers around the globe march for their common demands, signifying international working-class solidarity.
On that day, Chicago stood still as “Tens of thousands downed their tools and moved into the streets. No smoke curled from the tall chimneys of the factories and mills,” reported one paper.
On May 3, the cops murdered at least two strikers at the McCormick Reaper Works. The next day thousands marched in protest into Chicago’s Haymarket Square. A bomb was thrown by a police agent. Four workers were killed, seven cops died and 200 workers were wounded in what became known as the Haymarket Massacre.
Nine demonstration leaders were framed for “instigating a riot.” Four were hanged. A mass protest movement forced the Governor to free those still alive after the government admitted the frame-up.
From the beginning, May Day stood for working-class internationalism. History has shown us that the fight against racism and nationalism and for internationalism is the key to communist victory. The tens of thousands who won the 8-hour day saw it eroded, so another general strike was called for May 1, 1890. At the July 1889 meeting of the International Workers Association, organized and led by Karl Marx, the U.S. delegate reported on the struggle. The Association decided “to organize a great international demonstration, so that...on one appointed day the [world’s] toiling masses shall demand...” the 8-hour day. “Since a similar demonstration has already been decided upon by the American Federation of Labor....this day is adopted for the international demonstration.” This kind of international solidarity is vitally needed today.
Turning imperialist war into class war
As it progressed, the international communist movement took up the struggle and organized May 1st celebrations every year. In the U.S., it was championed for many years by the old Communist Party, with 250,000 marching in New York City in the 1940s.
But when that old party abandoned its principles, May Day was resurrected by the Progressive Labor Party in 1971 which advanced more revolutionary ideas. May Day marches have been organized by the PLP for the past 35 years, in many cities — Washington, D.C., New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Houston, Delano, and others, as well as PLP contingents in Latin America.
The rulers appear strong, and we shouldn’t delude ourselves about the enormous advantages they hold over us. But they have many weaknesses as well. They can’t hold power without oppressing us. They can’t rule the world without driving their rivals to unite against them. Capitalism is an unstable system. It will always lead to war (see editorial, page 2).
History shows that communist revolutions can seize power in the turmoil of imperialist war. The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 was the most profound event of the last millennium. The Chinese Revolution of 1949 and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of the 1960s again shook the world.
On May Day we march to remind us of our heroism as a class, reminding workers that we can no longer settle for dead-end reforms that force our class to coexist within a system that hates our existence.
Workers from China, the Soviet Union, to Cuba, have taken power and created worker’s societies, albeit fraught with errors and defeats, but left us with lessons from which to build the foundation for the egalitarian communist society we desperately need and deserve. Now more than ever we must build the Party, day-by-day, May Day marcher by May Day marcher, Challenge sub by Challenge sub, recruit by recruit, struggle by struggle for the liberation of our class. Join us!
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CUNY: PLP exposes liberal racist ideas, grows CHALLENGE
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- 16 April 2022 92 hits
BROOKLYN, NY—As we mark the midterm exam season, students, faculty, and members of the Progressive Labor Party at our CUNY (City University of New York) college campus have hit the ground running with antiracist, antisexist and anti-imperialist fightback! As imperialist wars ravage more and more workers around the world each day, antiracist students, faculty and PL’ers inspired by fightback in New Jersey are building a movement to smash capitalism once and for all.
Lead multiracial fightback
Following a gang-related shootout that killed twelve year-old Kade Lewin in the primarily Black working class East Flatbush neighborhood, the NYPD has launched a racist occupation force in the name of “fighting crime.” The NYPD has disrupted everyday life for thousands of workers with convoys of vehicles and floodlights. Each night at 8pm, NYPD helicopters hover close to the ground, making it difficult for children to sleep, all in the name of catching the criminals. As U.S. imperialism attempts to encircle its imperialist rivals Russia and China, this encirclement of the Black workers’ residences has nothing to do with “fighting crime.” Instead, it is about attempting to instill racist terror among the working class.
Meanwhile, in our campus club, PL’ers and friends had been tabling for weeks and showing the video of the racist police attack on the Rodwell-Spivey family in New Jersey, while collecting signatures to support the family’s legal defense of Justin Rodwell. Two young Black women students watched the video, and commented that the Newark PD behaves “exactly like they do in East Flatbush, especially since the murder of Kade Lewin.”
These young working-class women saw through liberal Mayor Adams’ racist lies about the nature of “crime” in Black neighborhoods, and knew something had to be done.
No good politicians in a racist system
Following a rush of student support and more than 50 students joining our campus club, more students began drawing connections between the racist police terror in liberal Democrat strongholds of Newark, NJ and East Flatbush, NYC. Campus staff, as well as majority Black cafeteria and custodial workers and CHALLENGE readers have also joined in organizing. Our growing student-worker alliance is connecting racist police terror in the U.S. to the sharpening inter-imperialist wars — and the need for a mass revolutionary party, not “better” politicians.
The liberal racist NYC mayor Eric Adams uses the families of tragic murder to push his own racist police agenda. But we’re organizing against racist police terror and occupation, from Newark to Brooklyn. Through neighborhood student connections with the family of Kade Lewin, we plan to send a collective letter of sympathy and solidarity and call a rally in East Flatbush. The working class of East Flatbush must not be punished! The NYPD, racist Democrat Eric Adams and “Jim Crow” Joe Biden are the real criminals and terrorists responsible for heinous crimes through the racist capitalist system they represent, and want millions of working-class youth to fight for U.S. imperialism and to die defending it!
Onward to May Day!
As we approach midterm exams this semester, our progress report so far includes more than 50 new Black, Latin and immigrant students organizing for fightback, and nineteen of our regular CHALLENGE readers among the students and campus workers taking the lead. CHALLENGE is discussed, debated and spreading within our campus antiracist club, with more fightback planned for the second half of the semester.
We also made collective plans for International Workers’ Day, May Day. When some students raised safety concerns about protesting, we collectively agreed on a meeting spot for that day and traveling to Flatbush and Clarendon together.
While the imperialist capitalist bosses from the U.S. to Russia and China plunge the international working class into another world war, our Party is growing its ranks and building especially among young Black, immigrant and women workers who will build a Red Army and smash capitalism once and for all with communist revolution. ONWARD!
WASHINGTON, DC, April 13—Bus operators at the D.C. Circulators are fighting back—96 percent of them voted to strike for wages and benefits after holding two vigorous protests where negotiations were taking place. These 150 operators have been paid lower wages than their Metro transit counterparts for over a decade, and the workers are fed up! Their struggle shows how the racist capitalist system especially oppresses Black workers and attempts to divide workers even in the same union from their brothers and sisters.
Progressive Labor Party (PLP) has been helping lead the fight for wage parity among transit workers in the DC area for many years, and helped organize and lead the two rallies. But wage parity is not enough. Any wages mean the capitalists are profiting off of our labor. We will keep struggling endlessly to destroy capitalism and its profiteering bosses.
Make strikes schools for communist workers’ power
Workers that can organize strikes can run society and we would run it to benefit all workers, not racist, sexist, profiteering capitalists. That’s communism. Industrial workers are key to building such a revolutionary movement and the PLP has been raising class consciousness and multiracial unity through our work in the union for decades. The predominantly Black workforce in the transit industry in DC makes any attack on this group of workers a racist one, and we are calling this out for what it is.
Despite shady manipulation by the union’s lawyer who signed off on a 30-day contract extension with the company, workers showed up on their day off to vote and spread the word throughout the company to vote Yes for a strike. The Circulator operators belong to the 13,000-member ATU Local 689 but are saddled with a separate, inferior contract with a private contractor, RAPTDEV, an international company that exploits workers all around the world, and makes billions doing so. A key part to winning any strike at the Circulator is gaining the support of Metro workers throughout the system.
The son of a Circulator operator took pride in developing an energizing playlist of fightback songs to keep the picket line at the rallies going. While we started with the classic chant of “The workers united, will never be defeated!” union members on the picket line also joined in with a new chant on the spot mocking RAPTDEV’s offer of a 30 cent/hour raise saying “30 cent ain’t sh*t!” (which we all really enjoyed chanting). At one point the company lawyers came downstairs to observe the rally from inside the hotel lobby, and militant workers yelled and banged on the window until they fled like the dogs they are with their tails between their legs.
Safety blitz upsets bosses; communism will eliminate them
Union mechanics and organizers did an early morning safety blitz to make sure Circulator workers were being assigned safe buses by management, another tactic to fight RAPTDEV. Many operators had to go from two to three buses to find one that worked! Management routinely tries to intimidate operators into taking out unsafe buses, from broken horns to non-working turn signals. One bus had such poor brakes that the bus slid! The drive for profit supersedes any safety regulations under capitalism. But bolstered by worker solidarity, operators reported all unsafe buses to management. Management was so upset by our safety blitz presence that they called the cops on us!
At each rally, PL’ers distributed CHALLENGE and expressed solidarity with the workers. One PLP member gave a speech connecting the struggle at Circulator to similar union fights at Howard University and Amazon warehouses. Many workers were inspired to hear that their fight is supported far and wide, and opens the way to understanding the need to take the road to communist revolution.
PAKISTAN, April 13—Prime Minister Imran Khan has been ousted by a no-confidence vote spearheaded by politicians aligned with the Pakistan military. The turmoil in the Pakistan ruling class is driven by competing factions within the ruling class and their ties to the big imperialists in the U.S. and China. As the bosses fight over Pakistan, the working class, suffering under extreme inflation and poverty wages, is fighting back with large demonstrations in many areas of industry . These demonstrations are demanding higher pay and other benefits people need to survive.Progressive Labor Party (PLP) is working to build a revolutionary communist movement for revolution and workers’ power among our friends and fellow workers in these struggles.
The departing ruling political party—responsible for the high rate of inflation, exploitation and fascism—has now started to say that the U.S. bosses have chalked out a plan for regime change with the help of the opposition. The reality is that Khan and his faction had managed to sour relations with both the U.S. and Chinese bosses. Khan upset the U.S. bosses by supporting the Russian Invasion of Ukraine. Simultaneously the Khan faction lost the confidence of the Chinese ruling class. First in 2018 by threatening to kill the extensive Belt and Road projects in Pakistan (Yahoo news, 4/13). They backed down on that threat but in the last few months have failed to make payments owed to the Chinese bosses for electric power plants and other Chinese constructed projects in Pakistan (Eurasian Times 3/22).
Big imperialists force changes in Pakistan
Khan and his group have failed to bring down inflation and are sparking anger among the military which is one of the largest business owners in the country with assets of over $100 billion, including large amounts of oil and banking businesses (Asia Times, 3/8/19). The high inflation was also causing concern among the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which was holding up a promised $6 billion loan to the country.
All of this was too much for the military bosses whose business arrangement relies on Chinese investment and exports to the U.S. This led to the ouster of the Khan government and the insertion of Shebaz Sharif, the brother of a three time Prime Minister and one of the wealthiest families in the country. Immediately both the Chinese and the U.S. bosses sent messages of congratulations.
The removal of Khan is a prelude to a bigger struggle in Pakistan as the struggle between the Chinese and U.S. bosses will now sharpen inside Pakistan. The immediate question will be around the war in Ukraine where the U.S. will try to get Pakistan to buck China and impose sanctions on Russia. The Khan faction is also continuing to fight. Khan’s Pakistan Justice Party was able to turn out hundreds of thousands of people on April 10 to protest their ouster from the government.
Workers fight back
While the bosses battle over control of Pakistan, the economic conditions are getting worse on a daily basis and the working class is dying because of unemployment and hunger. But the working-class fightback against exploitation, poverty, fascism and unemployment is gaining strength. People from every walk of life are angry with capitalism. Students, workers, women’s groups and other professional organizations are demanding availability of cheap basic commodities, disparity allowances, employment, and shelters to live in but the Pakistani ruling class’ infighting is diverting their attention from poverty and exploitation.
Now the Pakistan bosses are trying to divert the working class from blaming the Pakistani bosses and the capitalist system for the crisis by getting workers to choose sides in their battles. These are old tactics of the ruling class when people start to unite against the prevailing capitalist political system. The bosses try to divide workers in the name of religion, nationalism and personality cults. The upcoming elections are shaping up to be very violent as the bosses fight each other and try to mobilize the working class around nationalism and religious differences.
Building a communist movement
PLP is involved in organizing demonstrations, rallies and strikes of students for restoration of student’s unions, decreasing tuition fees, security in the education institutions and stopping forced disappearances of student activists from campuses. We are trying to build a base in the factories where labor unions are banned and the contract (piece work) system prevails.
We are also working with teachers who are demonstrating against the government policies and are demanding a disparity allowance and a salary increase because some government departments’ workers receive more pay and allowances than teachers.
PLP strives to bring more and more people onto the streets to chant against the capitalist horrors and fascism. From Brooklyn to Pakistan PLP is trying to build a united struggle against the exploitation, fundamentalism, fascism and unemployment which is the ultimate result of capitalism. In Pakistan, our participation in reform struggles are gaining respect among the workers and it seems that our politics is inspiring them to join the hands of comrades in struggle and fight not just for reforms but for workers' power. We are building a base for communist revolution.
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Amazon workers wins union struggle, deserves liberation from profit system
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- 16 April 2022 118 hits
Staten Island, NY, April 12—Against all odds, Amazon workers in New York dared to struggle, and won! United—Black, Latin, Asian, white—these young workers have formed the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), an independent union representing the workers in an Amazon shipping warehouse on Staten Island. While politicians, reaching up to President Joe Biden, and so-called labor leaders now congratulate the new union and pledge their support, they were almost nowhere to be found as the workers began and carried through their struggle. While unions are not the solution for liberating workers from capitalism, Progressive Labor Party (PLP) applauds the workers’ integrated fightback at Staten Island’s Amazon shipping warehouse The commitment to their fellow workers is emblematic of how strikes and organizing become schools for communism. Until our international revolution is won, these lessons are hugely beneficial to our political growth and movement.
Whether the new union will get the support they need or mere lip service is now the question. Jeff Bezos’ Amazon giant has already begun its campaign to get the union election results thrown out and a new election held. Whether Amazon succeeds or not, the ALU then faces the challenge of getting Amazon to the table to bargain fairly for the contract provisions the workers are demanding - safer, better, more humane working conditions and wages high enough to support a family.
Workers of the world unite
At a rally before the election, one of the ALU leaders said that as he suffered the horrid working conditions in the warehouse, he at first asked why no one could help him and his fellow workers. Then, he realized that it was not a question of an outside savior. It was up to him and the others directly affected to begin and struggle through until they won what they needed, not allowing racist and sexist ideas to divide them. That is a lesson that all workers ought to take to heart. We need to rely on each other, not phony politicians who want photo-ops and our votes, or labor misleaders that want to co-opt us and suck up dues money.
The ALU is rightly trying to extend its organizing efforts to other Amazon locations, and Amazon will fight them tooth and nail. The NLRB has ruled in the union’s favor and certified the election, as Biden and the rulers he represents are trying to put on a worker-friendly face. What the ALU has to realize is that the government, the state, and its organs like the NLRB are not neutral. The United States is controlled by a capitalist class, and its institutions will always bend to the capitalists’ will.
Amazon and all other companies exist for one purpose: to make profits. To make profits, employers MUST exploit their workers. Currently, Bezos is a better exploiter, hence his staggering wealth. In the struggle against the Amazon bosses, ALU workers learned that to get what they needed, they had to fight for it themselves. The next lesson to be learned is that to get and KEEP what they need, Amazon workers and all workers must fight to destroy the capitalist exploiters and replace their system with communism, a system run by and for workers to fulfill workers’ needs, not to generate profits for a few.
The Progressive Labor Party is organizing workers and students worldwide with just that goal in mind. Join us!
